a small town wedding: dinner & our first dance.

After the cocktail hour ended, it was time for dinner and our first dance.  Here's what we saw when we walked into the dining room.

Here's our spot at the head table.

We had collected tons of wine bottles to use as table numbers, and they were filled with single dahlias alongside green hydrangeas in purple vases.

When our guests were seated, we were introduced as Mr. & Mrs. and danced our first dance as husband and wife.

We danced to Home by Dave Barnes.

Source: YouTube

We had taken dance lessons for a few months before the wedding, which was really fun!  Of course the DJ had skipped the intro to the song, so we were a little thrown off at the start, and ended up having to make it up as we went along.

Thankfully no one seemed to notice!  We're not really fans of being the center of attention, so switching up the dance a bit was a welcome distraction from everyone watching us.

We ended our first dance with a twirl...

and a kiss!

All images by Deborah Cull Photography

Next up, it's time for toasts.

Previously in our wedding recaps:

Mascaras Get Married: The Beginning

Mascaras Get Married: Giving Gifts

Mascaras Get Married: Girls Get Ready

Mascaras Get Married: Guys Get Ready, and a Gift for the Groom
Mascaras Get Married: Becoming a Bride

Mascaras Get Married: Processionals and Pep Talks

Mascaras Get Married: Husband and Wife

Mascaras Get Married: Portraits

Mascaras Get Married: A Photographic Adventure
Mascaras Get Married: Cocktail Hour

saving our seats.

Obviously, there is no question as to where the bride and groom sit at their own reception. Head table or sweetheart table, either way, the newly married couple usually know where they should sit, and no honorable wedding guest would dare take those seats. Are the little signs we see designating the chairs for the happy couple unnecessary? Probably. But are they super cute and just begging for a photo op? Most definitely!

(source)

Mrs. Cupcake's chair signs.

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I took a cue from a few of my favorite detail shots and made our own "Mr." and "Mrs." signs to tie onto our chairs.

Note: This was pre-prioritizing. I was counting down the months at this point, not days!

I think we'll also put our Goose Grease cake toppers at our places, just in case we forget where we'll be sitting (or maybe just because they are adorable).

How are you saving your seats at your reception?

in love.

I'm pretty much in love with this rehearsal dinner designed by Amy Nichols and featured on Style Me Pretty. I want to know what the wedding itself looked like if the rehearsal dinner was this beautiful!

If I wasn't having such a hard time finding ribbon in our wedding colors, I would totally use this idea for chair decorations at our reception! Who knew something so simple could dress up a wooden chair so much?

Photos by Timothy Teague

I'm also loving the way the napkins are rolled and tied with ribbon. This one, I think I may try to replicate!

With only 3 months left to go, I've been trying to limit my intake of new ideas, because honestly there's just not enough time left to implement any more ideas! But its so hard to not be inspired while looking at wedding blogs! Is anyone else trying not to be inspired as their countdown starts winding down?

convinced.

If all it takes is some draped fabric to make a garage look this dreamy, I'm convinced everything will work out for my own ugly venue as well.  This is me breathing another sigh of relief.  *sigh*  I feel better.

(source)

Does anyone else look for inspiration to convince themselves that everything will be okay?

another project.

Please excuse me for not writing an interesting post today. You see, I was busy all night making one of these.
A 20' long teal taffeta table runner (how's that for alliteration?). One down, twenty more to go. They are kind of a pain to make, but look at how shiny they are! Please excuse the random threads, the fabric frays easily so I need to clean up the edges.
Here's a rough mockup of what they'll look like on our tables. Except the table will be twice as long and all of the chairs will be white. And the flowers will be different, these were just leftovers I had around the house.

What do you think? Are you planning to make your own table runners?

balloons and ric-rac.

How cool is this idea for escort cards from Once Wed? They would be perfect for a modern wedding.


The pink ric-rac is such a sweet detail. I am amazed at some of the things people come up with to use for wedding decor. I think this same idea could be applied to centerpieces too. Such a simple (and cheap!) DIY project that would make a big impact!

more tissue paper.

While we're on the subject of tissue paper, check out these dahlia napkin rings. I'm probably going to use white linen napkins rather than trying to find a color that goes with our scheme. White is just easier and cheaper. I was thinking of placing a real dahlia on each place setting to dress it up a bit, but these could work too. Maybe I can recruit some helpers for this one... my list of projects keeps growing and growing. There's a how-to from Martha for this one as well.

Do I...
a. Take the cheap route and use tissue paper
b. Be lazy and pay for real flowers
c. None of the above

decor details.

This weekend was a huge success! We met with the decorators on Saturday and discussed their ideas for the reception space beautification project. I am so impressed with their ideas, I can't wait to see their vision come to life! Here is a very rough drawing of what the layout will look like.

When guests walk in, they will enter the cocktail area. The guest book and gift tables will be near the entrance, along with the homemade photobooth. There will be staggered pedestal tables near the bar and chinese lanterns on the ceiling. The cocktail area will be separated from the dinner area by trees planted in white wooden boxes and covered in white lights. The entrance to the dinner area will be accented with curtains that are pulled back to each side.

The dinner area will primarily consist of long buffet tables with white linens and teal table runners. The head table will be located straight ahead of the entrance, and will hopefully be raised up so everyone can see what's happening. There will be a few round tables for the family near the head table. The DJ will be along the right wall, next to another row of trees in white wooden boxes, which will be uplit with purple lights. The cake table in the right hand corner will also be accented with lighting.

The buffet table will be along the left wall, as well as the coffee bar. Chinese lanterns will be hung above the buffet. Dancing will take place in the center of the room, under the large chandelier hanging in the middle. The rest of the ceiling will be tented with white plastic (which looks like fabric) and strings of white lights.

I'll admit that I was a little overwhelmed with the extent of the decorating they're planning, and I thought that I could never afford a transformation like this one. When they handed me the quote, I had to look at it a few times to process it. I was so surprised to find out that the quote was less than half of what another decorator had quoted me, even though they are doing about 4 times the amount of work!

The decorating of the reception venue has been the element of the wedding that I have been most worried about since we began planning. After this weekend, it is honestly the one part of the day that I know will be perfect! These ladies get it. They have excellent taste and their vision has gone above and beyond what I could ever have dreamed up for the space.

I'm so excited to see the final product! Too bad I have to wait another six months...

hoping for a transformation.

This weekend we'll be driving up to the UP to meet with several of our wedding vendors. I've been trying to finalize our plans for decorating for a few months now, and it has been difficult to say the least. We will be meeting with the decorators on Saturday to see what they have that we can borrow, rather than buying ourselves, as well as to go over their vision for the event. Why don't we just do the decorating ourselves, you might ask? Because we're having our reception here...

at the local armory. And it's hideous. But it is big enough to comfortably accommodate all of our guests, which we cannot say for many other of the indoor venues in the area. It is also the only venue that isn't split up into a bunch of smaller rooms. My only requirements for our reception venue was that it was indoors (not willing to chance the weather, I would worry too much) and that no one would be sitting in the "reject room", where they can't even hear the toasts! Is the armory pretty? Of course not, but at least no one will feel left out!

I'm praying that we can work some magic to make the place look less like a gym. I'm sure it will be difficult but my decorators and I are up for the task! This amazing transformation by One Source Weddings is giving me hope!

Does anyone else have a venue that needs some work? I hope I'm not all alone on this one!

tealights on the cheap.

I've been on the lookout for affordable tealights to add to the tables at our reception. A set of 24 of these from Save On Crafts costs $8.64. That's only 34 cents each!

I think we might put some on the cocktail tables with some button mums in them. See how cute they look with flowers?

While you're there, Save On Crafts has a ton of other affordable supplies for weddings, so be sure to look around!

big fluffy bows.

How fun are these big bows? We could use them as a more original take on the chinese lantern idea. I'm seeing a bow theme come out in this wedding. Bows on the bridesmaids dresses, my shoes, my clutch, possibly the bouquets. And now possibly hanging from the ceiling of our venue!

Photo from Martha Stewart Weddings.

weekend recap part two.

Thankfully, Sunday was a much more successful day than Saturday. First, Adam and I went through our engagement pictures and decided on a picture to use for our engagement announcement. We worked on cropping the picture and filled out the paperwork so all we'd have to do was print the picture and put it in the mail. Next, I went to look for fabric to use to make our own ties for the groomsmen if all else fails. I didn't find any, but I did find the stuff for one other project I needed to work on. Sorry, that one is still a secret!

When I got home I realized that the flowers that Adam had bought me last week were getting to be at the end of their prime, so I took them out of the vase and made a mock-up of what my bouquet would look like. It turned out I didn't have enough of the mums (I'm pretty sure they are mums not dahlias) to make a bouquet big enough, but it gave me a general idea.

The flowers also look pretty in the purple vases we bought at the dollar store. We bought 100 of them! It's hard to tell from the picture but the vases are purple. I think we'll probably put green and white hydrangeas in these vases rather than the mums or dahlias.

For the taller centerpieces, we'll be using Mamertino wine bottles. I'm thinking we'll remove the labels, but I'm not sure yet. The flowers in this vase will probably be dahlias or mums. I didn't want to pull the leaves off the flower and ruin it, but we'd probably take them off for the final arrangements. It looks kind of weird with the leaves sticking out.Some of the wedding elements grouped together. They won't be arranged this way for the wedding but it helps show how the colors will work together.
After playing florist for a little while, it was time to make dinner. Since Adam won our bowling bet the night before, I had to make chili. He ended up helping with it which was nice and while we waited for it to simmer I worked on my "secret project" while Adam researched honeymoon possibilities. We ate dinner and then went to the gym. When I came home I did the last thing on my to do list for the weekend... made red velvet cupcakes! And let me tell you they were pretty delicious. Definitely on the list of possibilities for the wedding.

Sunday was a busy day but I felt a little less stressed out after getting so much accomplished! Yay for productive days!

All photos are my own.

purple decor!

That's what I found this past weekend while shopping for Christmas presents. I guess you could say I got a little distracted...

But I think they'll look great at our reception! I guess we could use the candlesticks for the unity candle lighting too... but our church doesn't allow unity candles. Oh well.

I think we'll use the vase to hold the white branches for our guestbook/wish tree, although I think the opening at the top might be too small. I guess I'll have to try it out and see. I'm hoping our tree will look similar to this with a little less crystal and smaller tags. A few crystals hanging on branches are fine, but this is a little over the top for me.
How do you feel about the guestbook tree idea? I just want to get away from the regular guestbook, because really what do you do with a book of names after the wedding?

Top photo is my own. Wish tree photo (and a how-to) from here.